Fifth International Congress Against Prostitution

Published:Rabochaya PravdaNo. 1, July 13, 1913.

      Signed:W..

      Published according to theRabochaya Pravdatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 19,

      pages260-261.Translated:The Late George HannaTranscription\Markup:S. RyanPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (1901).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Thefifthinternational congress for the
suppression of the white slave traffic recently ended in London.

Duchesses,countesses, bishops, priests, rabbis, police officials and
all sorts of bourgeois philanthropists were well to the fore! How many
festive luncheons and magnificent official receptions were given! And how
many solemn speeches on the harm and infamy of prostitution!

Whatmeans of struggle were proposed by the elegant bourgeois delegates
to the congress? Mainly two methods—religion and police. They are, it
appears, the valid and reliable methods of combating prostitution. One
English delegate boasted, according to the London correspondent of theLeipziger
Volkszeitung,[1]that he had introduced a bill into parliament
providing forcorporal punishmentfor pimps. See the sort he is,
this modern “civilised” hero of the struggle against prostitution!

Onelady from Canada waxed enthusiastic over the police and the
supervision of “fallen” women by policewomen, but as far as raising wages
was concerned, she said that women workers did not deserve better pay.

OneGerman pastor reviled present-day materialism, which, he said, is
taking hold among the people and promoting the spread of free love.

Whenthe Austrian delegate G\"artner tried to raise the question of the
social causes of prostitution, of the need and poverty experienced by
working-class families, of the exploitation of child labour, of unbearable
housing conditions, etc., he was forced to silence by hostile shouts!

Butthe things that were said about highly-placed personages—among
groups of delegates—were instructive and sublime. When, for example, the
German Empress visits a maternity hospital in Berlin,rings are placed
on the fingersof mothers of “illegitimate” children in order that
this august individual may not be shocked by the sight of unmarried
mothers!

Wemay judge from this the disgusting bourgeois hypocrisy that reigns
at these aristocratic-bourgeois congresses. Acrobats in the field of
philanthropy and police defenders of this system which makes mockery of
poverty and need gather “to struggle against prostitution”, which is
supported precisely by the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie....

[1]LeipzigerVolkszeitung(Leipzig People’s
Newspaper)—the organ of the Left wing of the German
Social-Democratic Party, published daily from 1894 to 1933; for a Dumber of
years it was edited by Franz Mehring and Rosa Luxemburg. From 1917 to 1922 it
was the organ of the German “Independents”, and after 1922 it became
the organ of the Right Social-Democrats.